Love it or hate it. There isn’t much middle ground or neutrality regarding Damien Chazelle’s (La La Land, First Man) divisive Babylon, a fantastical look at the debaucherous look at the rise and fall of the Hollywood movie industry during the 1920s. While some might believe its 56% /52 % scores on Rotten Tomatoes suggest it’s an ordinary movie, those average scores may result from people either loving or hating it. I enjoyed the movie. It is far from being in my top ten of the year. With only a couple of 2022 films left to watch, Babylon sits at #16 (out of the 74 2022-released films I’ve seen). It’s a fine film and one that is worth viewing.

I’ll preface all this by saying that with its ridiculous 189-minute runtime and my apprehension about it, I had no interest in seeing it in the theater despite it being spectacular on the big screen. Instead, I had to break this movie into hour-long chunks. While much of that had to do with its length, this was also needed because of its frenetic pace. The film doesn’t let up from the opening to the closing frame. I felt myself needing to take a break and process it before reinvesting more of my time.

I am often not a fan of movies that fall into the comedy/drama category, especially when it comes to movies that hope to win awards. While I enjoy a good coming-of-age dramedy, those types of films often do not receive Oscar nominations, something that Chazelle certainly had hopes for with Babylon. With that said, I loved The Wolf of Wall Street’s excessive consumption of stock market manipulation in the late 1980s and the outrageous performances of its two leads (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill), each of whom earned Oscar nominations. Babylon feels like a mash-up of La La Land, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, and The Wolf of Wall Street. You’ll be in for a treat if you like just two of these movies. If you enjoyed all three, Babylon might blow your mind. Ironically, the three comparable movies earned two acting Academy Award nominations (Emma Stone won Best Lead Actress for La La Land, while Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood). While Babylon earned no acting Oscar nominations, its ensemble cast was the strongest of the four movies.

Babylon feels like drug-induced pandemonium. It’s a tale of excessive greed in 1920s Hollywood as silent films transitioned to sound cinema. It’s an examination of the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of bloated egos, rampant disobedience, and reckless depravity. Newcomer Diego Calva stars Manny Torres, a Mexican American aspiring actor trying to break into Hollywood, doing whatever is necessary to climb the ranks. Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Ad Astra) is a famous silent film star and anointed as the unofficial king of Hollywood. An unfaithful womanizer, Jack is worried that his prosperous career will be a victim of “talkie terror,” the disappointment that audiences experience when the voices of their favorite actors don’t match their preconceptions. Jack isn’t ready for the reshaping of Hollywood and continues to hang onto the pipe dream that silent films will be able to survive the transition, and he can hang onto his career. Likewise, Nellie (Margot Robbie – Bombshell, I, Tonya) is an established actress whose ferocious sexuality has her bordering on fame. She, too, is worried about “talkie terror.”

The film earned three Oscar nominations but none in the ‘big six’ categories. Its selections were for Production Design, Costume Design, and Original Score. Each nomination is deserving. I would not be surprised if Justin Hurwitz’s brilliant score, which adeptly transitions us from one chaotic scene to the next, wins.